Activity to Jumpstart Your Creative Brain
Have you ever done a Color Walk? It’s a fun activity that can help jumpstart your creative brain. It’s an exercise to try when you’re in a creative slump like writers block, boredom, or trying to decide what to paint, cook, code, or design. The idea behind the Color Walk is to step away from your project, change your setting, and turn up your senses. It’s like a warm-up exercise for creative thinking. A Color Walk can
Have you ever done a Color Walk? It’s a fun activity that can help jumpstart your creative brain. It’s an exercise to try when you’re in a creative slump like writers block, boredom, or trying to decide what to paint, cook, code, or design. The idea behind the Color Walk is to step away from your project, change your setting, and turn up your senses. It’s like a warm-up exercise for creative thinking. A Color Walk can spark ideas because it gets you “out of your head” and out into the world. Plus, walking reduces stress, cheers you up, and can help reduce your response to stress. So, let’s get going!
What you need for a Color Walk:
Notebook and pen
Smartphone or Camera
90 minutes
Take Photos
Go for an hour long walk by yourself—without the kids, without the dog—just you and your camera. Before you leave, select a color and only take photos of things that are that color. For my example I choose yellow. Take at least 18 photos.
* Note about Location: Walking in the forest isn’t the best place for this exercise if your color is taxi yellow. I’ve had the best results from the Color Walk by strolling through my city neighborhood. Basically, you want to go somewhere with diversity and a lot to see. A park, public garden, beach, or Main street would all work great!
Curate
When you get home, scroll through your photos and select 9 images to keep and delete the rest. But don’t just select the ones you like; every artist needs a point of view. Your criteria might be simple like: “only keep organic images” or “only keep manmade images”. You might decide to keep the 9 darkest shades of blue and delete all the light ones. Or you might unearth a more meaningful criteria and discover that you have something to say about the environment or politics or society. Don’t overthink this and get yourself stuck on the desire for deeper meaning. That defeats the purpose of the exercise!
Take a screen shot of your 9 images (like I did in the header image of this article). Or print them out, grab some scissors and a glue stick and make a collage (extra points if you do that!).
Reflect
Write about your walk and your collection of 9 images in your notebook. Here are some questions to get you started:
What did you see that was obvious or cliche? (For example, a red fire truck or orange orange). What colors revealed themselves more slowly?
What were you surprised to see?
If you walked in a familiar place, like your neighborhood or campus, what did you notice that you never saw before?
Did you find yourself trying to spot a specific object (maybe you really wanted to find a purple house or an orange car?)
Takeaways
At the very least, I hope you had fun on your Color Walk. Maybe you even felt a small sense of adventure. When I was doing mine, I remembered how excited I got about scavenger hunts and easter egg hunts as a kid. As I walked, I was curious about the yellow things I’d discover around each corner. Once, I glimpsed what I thought was spray paint on a wooden fence. When I got closer I realized the yellow streaks were bright fungi that were growing between the cracks of the damp boards; such a cool texture! Days later, I was struggling with a brochure design and it dawned on me that it would work much better if I added a woodgrain texture to the cover — inspired by my photo of the fence.
A Color Walk can also be meditative and grounding because we tend to slow down when we’re hunting and looking with purpose. And if you’re really lucky, the activity might even bring clarity to your original project (the one you were uninspired by).
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”
ALICE WALKER
THE COLOR PURPLE
A Graphic Designer's Spring Collection
Most designers I know are gleeful curators. I think it’s because the act of curation is like making a gift basket for our own creative brains. Whether practicing graphic design, interior design, or fashion design, we collect images and textures and objects to inspire us and our clients. And much like a Curator at a gallery or museum, we organize and display interesting things for people to look at. I do this every day and it’s one of my favorite things about the design process. So, just for fun, here’s a curated list of some of my personal favorite things for spring.
Most designers I know are gleeful curators. I think it’s because the act of curation is like making a gift basket for our own creative brains. Whether practicing graphic design, interior design, or fashion design, we collect images and textures and objects to inspire us and our clients. And much like a Curator at a gallery or museum, we organize and display interesting things for people to look at. I do this every day and it’s one of my favorite things about the design process. So, just for fun, here’s a curated list of some of my personal favorite things for spring.
Stay-at-Home Style
I have absolutely always opted for comfort over style and working from home is a luxury I fit right into. And since we are all living in quarantine these days, comfort is still queen in my castle.
Everyday outfit: Black pants from American Giant and layers of cotton shirts. These quality pants (made in California) are thick and stretchy but don’t bag-out in the knees.
Glasses: I’m trying to decide if I am cool enough to get this pink pair from Goodr (1) . Their colorful brand is whimsical, fun, and energetic. What’s not to love? Here’s their mission statement: “We are recklessly committed to fun... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH sunglasses.”
Go-to Shoe: Grey Saucony sneakers. Comfortable, affordable, and go with everything! I burn through a new pair every year (2).
Bag: Felt laptop sleeve from Amazon Basics. I can’t tell you how many compliments I have gotten on this. It’s casually elegant and classic.
American Giant Women’s Jogger
Wellness & Beauty
Exercise: I get rolling every morning on my foam roller with some Mat Pilates.
Elixir: Refreshing mint water from the garden (steep leaves in cold water in the fridge for 24 hours). You’ll feel like you’re at the spa if you drink it after a steamy shower; a small luxury I always enjoy.
Hands: Burts Bees Cocoa butter
Face: Origins Ginseng SPF 40 with sheer tint. This gives me a natural glow with minimal coverage (4).
How does your garden grow?
I learn something new every time I’m pruning or planting in our garden. The weeds are a constant battle this season (especially the Bermuda buttercup!) but it’s therapeutic clearing out weeds. I call it “editing” and add more white space so the flowers can breathe ;)
Flowers: I have a gorgeous half barrel filled with small Border Dahlia that just started to bloom this week (6).
Planting: We have raised beds in the front of our house where I just planted cherry tomato starts, carrot seeds, and zinnia seeds. Photos coming soon!
Edibles: Harvesting chocolate mint, pineapple mint, and Moroccan mint. Mint is super easy to grow in a pot. But don’t plant it in the ground unless you want it to spread.
Chocolate Mint
Designer Tools
Pen: Fine tip Sharpie pen (the economy version of the classic Micron). I have them in every drawer and every bag. Love them!
Last art supply I bought: 6 tubes of Golden Open Acrylics. These are slow drying paints similar to oils but without the mess of oils (5).
Gadget: Apple EarPods for all my client video chats and calls. Wire free!
Garden: Grass trimming shears and sharpener (for trimming our tiny lawn edging).
Entertainment
Watching: The Chef show with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi, Netflix. These creative guys are chill, respectful, and geek out on food as they travel around visiting other chef’s kitchens.
Listening: Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. Lively and deep conversations with experts and celebrities. My recent favorite episodes have included Andrew Marantz, Cheryl Crow, and Zoe Kravitz.
Reading: Creative Quest by Questlove (9). He really dives deep into the creative process and tells some funny stories. Here’s a passage that I’ve been trying to practice: “Carve out the negative space around your idea. If you know you are about to paint a portrait, make a list of all the things you don’t want it to be: overly realistic, say, or brightly colored. It’s sometimes hard to see the heart of an idea, so chip away at all the things that aren’t the heart. This also helps to focus your overall artistic goals.” I find this tactic helpful when I’m discussing brand identity and logo design with a client.
Grooving: This week it’s been a lot of Moby Radio on Spotify. I listen to so much music, I’ll have to do a separate post on that topic. Stay tuned!
Admiring: Sean Baker who made the colorful film The Florida Project, 2017 (3). The setting is an impoverished purple motel next to Disney World and the main character is a sassy 6 year old who runs free in this “paradise” landscape. The acting is fantastic and the scenes are raw, original, and memorable.
In the Kitchen
Baking: Wild yeast pizza dough from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish (8). This is the best book for anyone interested in baking artisan bread in a Dutch oven.
Prepping: A dozen ham and egg cups with Havarti and dill baked at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.
Mixing: The classic Tom Collins
